


Icarus and the End of All Things

by Severa



Series: Self-Indulgent [5]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Ficlet, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-18
Updated: 2016-07-18
Packaged: 2018-07-24 18:42:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 460
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7519096
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Severa/pseuds/Severa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>“Icarus. You know, that Greek story?”</i> Steve had said once, <i>"That’s what I thought, when you fell. Thought you were a goner. Flew too close to… whatever it was.”</i></p><p>Tony finds himself lost, alone, and dying on a frozen planet, but all he can think about are dead Gods.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Icarus and the End of All Things

**Author's Note:**

> A short ficlet I posted on my Tumblr some time ago. Enjoy!

_“Icarus. You know, that Greek story?”_ Steve had said once, halfway through a movie marathon they had stopped paying attention to. _“That’s what I thought, when you fell. Thought you were a goner. Flew too close to… whatever it was.”_

If Tony hadn’t adopted the name ‘Iron Man’ from the press, maybe that would have been a good name to have. Icarus. It was artistic, tastefully ominous, and paralleled his genius. Icarus, who flew too close to the sun; who cheated death every day, until he fell in a blaze of fire and glory with smoldering wings.

Tony lay on the ground, cratered in the ice, and felt metal melt in his chest. The cold here couldn’t freeze the heat of his heart - the burning of his wings.

Icarus, he thought blandly. The higher you climb, the farther you fall. Genius, smarts, cunning - none of them could save you from your own stupidity.

If he survived this - he wouldn’t, he knew, but his optimistic streak was what motivated him through tragedy - he’d kill Eric Selvig and his stupid trans-dimensional portal. And then he’d kill himself for being thick-headed enough to think he should be the first test subject for unstable transportational technology. If Pepper didn't wring him out first.

The thought struck him that Tony Stark’s final words would be ‘beam me up, Scotty’ and he coughed blood through bubbling, sharp laughter.

Who knew where he was? A blizzard raged around him and the suit joints hardened, hydraulic fluid freezing in its veins. Metal frosted and cracked. But his chest was still molten; the arc reactor sparked and he tensed.

The blue light illuminating the snow flickered. Tony held his chest, forcing the suit to move, clinging to any faint hope that he might escape the inevitable.

_Please._

The light flickered. Sparks flew.

_No._

The arc reactor died.

In the blackness of a cold, foreign winter, Tony felt the jaws of death close around his heart. Sharp, merciless shards of shrapnel heralded the end of Tony Stark, billionaire, genius, _stupid-as-hell_ philanthropist. Iron Man.

“Oh, no.”

A green light illuminated the world, flickering where blue should be, and Tony gasped for air like a drowning man. Cold swept through him, unrelenting and dangerous, like the blizzard had ripped through his skin. He scrambled to roll himself over and vomited on the black-and-blue ground, gauntleted hands grasping for purchase on the stone.

“You see…” Black boots came into his line of vision, skirting around the edges of his sickness. “I am the end of all things.”

Tony looked up and saw Loki looming over him, a tower of darkness illuminated only by the faint green glow of the arc reactor. He was a smiling nightmare.

“And this is not your end, Stark.”


End file.
